pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news

David Cross is on a little fall tour to promote his new book, I Drink For a Reason.  You may know him from Mr Show with Bob & David, or as Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development (i.e.- the best television show of all-time), or his stand-up specials, or a glut of parts in television and movies.

(David Cross as Tobias Fünke was one of the best character pieces with laugh-out-loud antics in about every moment he was on screen).

I was just at the Newmark for another comedian, Patton Oswalt.  Unlike the Patton show, though, this show wasn’t general admission.  Yay!  We got to our seats ( fairly close up).  The show began not too long after.

The opener was Todd Glass.  He only did about 15 minutes, but was pretty damn funny.  He jumped around a lot in material, but I guess with only 15 minutes, you have to get as much in as possible.

David came out around 8:45pm and started off with a song about tearing Portland a new asshole that morphed into the jokes he was going to tell us, which wouldn’t involve any cosmonaut jokes… which, of course, ended with a cosmonaut joke.

David, of course, touched on religion, politics, and drugs.  My favorite bits were scattered all about.  His mom making yogurt… from yogurt was pretty funny.  The bit on the horror porn was hilarious.  He did make a good point – what’s the reason for horror porn?  To scare the cum out of you?

One of the better parts of the night was when he called out a sign language guy for signing words that didn’t exist.  The “deaf guy interloper” was part of the show, a friend of David’s; however at first, the audience didn’t know.  When David said “Gallileo,” the guy signed the motions for looking through a looking glass.  It looked so odd that David said it again about 3 times… then David started saying words like “ridonkulous” to see what the sign language would be.  It all ended with David calling him out and telling him to leave (“deaf guy” showed up later as a “live blogger interloper” during the set).

The bit about Scientology and Mormonism was also pretty funny.  We’ll see how that goes next week in Salt Lake City. :)  Some of his other humor was a little bit over the line (re: hassidic jews, etc), but that’s what you get with David Cross.  He ended with a joke on crazy things to buy (i.e.- SkyMall crap).  The  focus on the “time mug” was pretty hilarious.

After 90 quality minutes David left the stage… but then came back out shortly for a quick movie encore… he played 3 and a half minutes (all that was legally allowed) of his upcoming UK television series directed by Spike Jonze, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.  It looks pretty damn brilliant.  Anytime you have Spike Jonze involved, it’s got good potential.  Arrested Development alum Will Arnett was also in it.  We’ll likely not get it on this sided of the pond, until it hits DVD.

The Appropriate Linkage:

• David Cross’s Wiki (including Filmography)
• Todd Glass on MySpace
• Newmark Theatre / PCPA

~Dan – np: Faith No More – The Real Thing

David Cross’s Tour Dates

September 2009
24 & 25 – Portland, Ore. @ The Newmark Theatre
27 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Vancouver Comedy Festival
28 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ In The Venue
29 – Denver, Colo. @ Paramount Theatre
30 – Kansas City, Mo. @ Midland Theatre